Raigad Fort

Raigad (Marathi:रायगड) is a hill fortress situated in the modern day Raigad
district of Maharashtra, India. The Maratha king Shivaji made the fort his
capital in 1674 when he was crowned King of a Maratha Kingdom which later
developed into the Maratha Empire eventually covering majority of modern day
India.The fort, which rises 820 metres (2,700 ft) above sea level, is located in
the Sahyadri mountain range. There are approximately 1400–1450 steps leading to
the fort, though today a rope-way exists to reach the top of the fort. The fort
was looted and destroyed by the British upon siege.

History

Shivaji Maharaj had seized the site, then the fortress of Rairi, from the royal
house of the Chandrarrao Mores, a junior or Cadet dynasty descended from the
ancient Maurya imperial dynasty. The last More king (or raja) was a feudatory of
the Sultan of Bijapur. Shivaji renovated and expanded the Fortress of Rairi and
renamed it Raigad (the King's Fort), the name he gave it when he selected it for
his capital when he founded the Maratha empire. Rajgad, a hill fortress situated
in Raigad District of Maharashtra, India was capital of Shivaji's kingdom.

Architecture

The fort's ruins today consist of the queen's quarters, consisting of six
chambers, with each chamber having its own private restroom with plumbing. The
main palace was constructed using wood, of which only the bases of pillars
remain. Ruins of three watch towers can be seen directly in front of the palace
grounds overlooking an artificial lake called Ganga Sagar Lake created next to
the fort. It also has a view of the execution point called Takmak Tok, a cliff
from which the sentenced prisoners were thrown to their death. This areas is now
fenced off.[1]. The fort also has ruins of the market, and it has such structure
that one can shop even while riding or sitting astride a horse.The king's public
Durbar has a replica of the original throne that faces the main doorway called
the Nagarkhana Darwaja. This enclosure had been acoustically designed to aid
hearing from the doorway to the throne. A secondary entrance, called the Mena
Darwaja, was supposedly the private entrance of the royal ladies of the fort; it
leads to the queen's quarters. The erstwhile main entrance to the fort is the
imposing Maha Darwaja. The convoy of the king and the king himself used the
Palkhi Darwaja. To the right of Palkhi Darwaja, is a row of three dark and deep
chambers. Historians believe that these were the granaries for the fort.A statue
of Chhatrapati Shivaji is erected in front of the ruins of the main market
avenue that eventually leads to the Jagdishwar Mandir and his own Samadhi (tomb)
and that of his dog Waghya.